Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2006-04-20 06:32:08 - Graham Ellis
As part of our new hotel venture, Lisa and I are looking to take out life cover. We both went for medicals the other week, and I've now heard that they would like to rerun some tests on me; a couple of things like a slightly raised blood pressure and cholesterol level. Fair enough - and as the doctor's letter says (and research and the family expert agrees) these things are prone to go up and down and first tests err on the side of caution. But, nevertheless, a bit of a wake up call and a trigger to cause me to look at a few life-style / diet issues.
So ... out go:
Caffine (tea, coffee, coke ...)
Red meats (beef, lamb, pork)
Alcohol (not sure why - I only drink a very little and advice is somewhat contradictory)
Dairy products (eggs, milk, cheese)
Yes, I know - there's thousands of diets and schemes around and I'm very new to this. I see also references to fizzy drinks, salt, sugar and other things not good for one. But then I'm not looking to loose weight which so many of these schemes are encouraging ... a new minefield to learn.
Will keep you posted here from time to time - I'm nearly a week into this now, and apart from a slight headache one morning which was I put down to an abrupt lack of caffine, no downsides to report. Whether or not it'll make any difference for my retests on 4th May, I just don't know; I suspect not much. But then, I'm looking at a long term change here and the life policy is just a trigger. I expect I'll ease up on the regime a little after a few weeks and settle down into what should be a full but healthier pattern than perhaps the one I've been following in recent years.